10 Apps We’re Excited to Try on iPad Launch Day

Apple fans have two time-sucking activities to look forward to this weekend: playing with the iPad for the very first time and trying out brand-new tablet apps.

The first wave of iPad reviews describe a device that is simple, easy to use and visually stunning. But for our part, what we’re looking forward to most is the apps. In that, we’re not alone: Many developers are equally excited.

“We’re on the verge of a major milestone in computing,” said Marco Arment, lead developer at Tumblr. Arment’s iPad app, Instapaper, is coming out Saturday. “We’re going to look back on this week the same way we look back at the week before the iPhone launched, when we were all using awful flip-phones. This week is the end of the dark age of mainstream computing, and Saturday begins the enlightenment.”

What follows is a list of 10 of the most intriguing iPad apps and games that we’ve scouted out,and which will be releasing with Apple’s tablet on Saturday.

The Elements

Sure, the iPad has its iBooks app, and that’s fine if you like words — plain, poorly formatted, non–graphically enhanced EPUB words — but book publishers like Touch Press are inventing the future of books through their own apps. The Elements is a guide to the periodic table that’s been enhanced with 3-D objects, video clips and live data from Wolfram Alpha. “This is the version you check out from the Hogwarts library,” creator Theo Gray told BoingBoing. “Everything in it is alive in some way.” Or, if you’re a Neal Stephenson fan, it’s like the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer from The Diamond Age. Books like this are a geek’s dream, and we hope we see a lot more like it. The Elements costs $14 (and uses up 2 GB of storage). Download Link

Words With Friends HD

The Scrabble game Words With Friends was a huge hit on the iPhone, and it makes even more sense for the iPad’s bigger form factor. Words With Friends HD for the iPad will more closely resemble in size an actual Scrabble board, and the game will have the same online-chat capabilities as its predecessor. We can’t wait to try it out. It costs 5 bucks in the App Store. Download Link

iMockups

We think designers are going to adore this. iMockups is a wireframing-and-layout app to help you create mock-ups of your web, iPhone and iPad projects. Talk about a great idea to take advantage of all that screen. iMockups is $10. Download Link

Flight Control HD

A flight-landing simulator, Flight Control for iPhone was addictive as heck, and the experience of twirling your fingers to control and land airplanes will be even more crazy on the iPad. We’re looking forward to the prettier graphics and the tougher challenge on the iPad. The game costs $5. Download Link

Real Racing HD

Also from the maker of Flight Control, the game Real Racing HD looks promising. The game, whose iPhone version was a hit, features higher-resolution graphics and new touchscreen controls. A neat feature is the ability to select an image from your Photo Album to automatically wrap it around your car and race it on your iPad. Real Racing HD costs $10. Download Link

Instapaper Pro

Marco Arment has been working ferociously on rewriting his iPhone app Instapaper Pro, a hugely popular “read later” utility, to look great on the iPad. If you’re reading an article on a website on your computer, hit the Read Later button, and during your commute to work you can read everything you’ve saved, nicely reformatted for your screen. The best part is this upgrade was made for both the iPhone and the iPad, so you’ll only need to pay for Instapaper Pro once for both devices. It costs $5. Download Link

Air Harp

Plenty of clever apps turn the iPhone into a musical instrument, and Air Harp for iPad looks like it will bring this quirky idea to the larger screen. We’re not sure we’d ever want to be seen playing a real harp, but a digital harp we can dig. Air Harp allows you to play and sing along to interactive sheet music, and it includes two octaves (15 strings) in G Major. The app will cost $2. Download Link

C64 Paint

The iPad does a lot, but one thing it can’t do is take you back to the 1980s — for that, you need a hot tub. But C64 Paint will get you reliving the good ol’ days of 8-bit computers. The app creates pictures on a whopping 160-by-200 pixel canvas using the 16 colors of the classic Commodore 64. We love this idea. The app will cost 3 bucks. Download Link

Distant Suns 2

You can’t play God, but you can cram the known universe into your iPad. Distant Suns 2 sports a database of more than 130,000 stars, along with nebulae and galaxies, in what some have hailed as the most realistic portrayal of the night sky. The app costs $7. Download Link